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October 253 1856. j THE LEADER, 1025 ii ...
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THE HISTORY OF THE SARACENS. The History...
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THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. The Eighteenth C...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Sea Anemones. A Manual Of The 8ea Anemon...
Chrysanthemum , and too gorgeously arrayed ; it is a good four inches across , pearlywhite in the centre , then a broad ring of translucent lake , and then the petals!—row after row of transparent tentacles ringed with lake and delicate brown , and pearly white . Does not this come up to your " heart ' s desire ? " If not , you must be very hard to please . Ah ! you have touched it , and it has vanished entirely ; we can see nothing but gravel , and a little crab , which is scuttling away sideways , in a state of pugnacious amazement . ITow , if you put your hand down upon the place where you last saw the flower , you will feel a round lump of gravel ; scrape away all the loose stones round it , and then with the knife detach it very gently from its resting-place , or , if the rock be soft , chisel it away as patiently as you can . This is Actinia coriacea ( the " thick-skinned" anemone ) , and he puts on this coat of stones to conceal and
defend himself , and every stone is attached by means of minute suckers , with which his body is covered . Recollect that the least injury done to this anemone is generally fatal , and also remember that you may frequently discover him when he is not expanded , by feeling diligently in shingly nooks and corners just covered by the water , or even at the bottom of deep pools . There are innumerable varieties of this kind ; the body is generally marbled with red an . orange , and always studded with large white or opal tubercles or warts , but the colour of the disk and tentacles—i . e . of the expanded bloom , —is infinite in its changes : russet-green , crimson and white , red and orange , heather-tinted , dove-colour and lake , —every possible gradation of these and every other colour , though I can ' t say I ever saw a blue sea-anemone , which is as great a desideratum as a blue dahlia .
Having arrived at tie extremity of the point , and at the lowest level of the lowest tide , we will set our crowbar to work . Here is a large rock , well sheltered from the Atlantic swell , well covered with coralline and sea-weed , and well situated in the midst of a large pool , so that its base is always under water in all weathers . _] NTow , heave and with a will ! Over it rolls ! Away rush half a dozen bull-heads , and a young conger , viciously writhing , and lashing his tail as though he would do us a mischief if he could ; and only look at the crabs ! Let ns pick up that flat , hairy , dingy little rascal ^ he is a curiosity , by name platycheies , or " the broad-clawed , " arid very broad 3 iis claws are , for the pair of them side by side would more than cover hia
whole body : he is of a rather sulky disposition ,- —a little crabbed , we should say , if it wasn ' t for the apparent pun , —but he will lie harmlessly enough with our anemones ¦ when we get him home . Here is a pink button sticking to the stone , streaked with vertical lines of small opal dots or tubercles , six or more of these lines being very distinctly composed of larger tubercles of an opaque white colour . This is Actinia gemmacea , " the gem , " or , in the vernacular , " buttons . " He will disclose about fifty snaky , barred and spotted tentacles ; and his mouth is of a brilliant green , and there are half a dozen other colours you will discover in him when he is well opened tomorrow . This is a treasure ; it is common enough on the North Devon coast , but almost peculiar to that locality .
The third chapter— " What is its name ? " —is devoted to a classification of the Anemones such as will enable the amateur to identify the treasures liehas founds We observe , among the varieties of Mesembryanihemum , ' M . Y Tugwell has omitted to notice the Invisible Green—in the pools it appears jet black . We believe the variety is uncommon , but we found it on the rocksof YVaterwynch , near Tenby , and its colour is sufficiently marked for : variety . . ' . . ' . ¦ . ¦ ' : '¦¦ ¦ ¦ . - . ¦ .: ¦ ' ., ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦¦ ¦ ' : . _ Chapter IV . is '[ How shall I keep it Alive , " and contains excellent practical suggestions on the subject of Aquaria . Chapter V . is on the habits of the Animal , and Chapter VI . is on the distinctions of Genera and Species . Thus are all the questions which a popular Manual can pretend to answer answered in this work , which the naturalist will read . with , interest , and the amateur earnestly desire to possess . When the reader goes to the sea-side , let hi ™ -place this little volume in his carpet-bag .
October 253 1856. J The Leader, 1025 Ii ...
October 253 1856 . j THE LEADER , 1025 ii ¦ ¦ ¦ i ¦« ¦ i' ¦ ¦ ¦ — . ii — _^^^ _^ . ^ _^^^^ ^^— IM ^ ^ ^ ^^ J ^_^^^^_^^_^_^^—_— — . _ ¦ i ——»
The History Of The Saracens. The History...
THE HISTORY OF THE SARACENS . The History and Conquests of the Saracens . By Edward A . Freeman , M . A . J . H . and J . Parker . This volume has grown out of a course of Lectures delivered by Mr . Freenaan before the Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh . It contains a neat summary of the principal facts of Saracenic , or , rather , Mohammedan history , beginning with the birth of the Prophet , and ending with the fall of the Indian Moguls . We are glad to receive such a book from the hands of a competent scholar , because it will supersede a variety of illiterate compilations that are circulated merely on account of their popular form and strong pretensions . Mr . Freeman is not an Oriental scholar ; we do not even find that he is acquainted , to any extent , with the writings of English and French Orientalists on the military and social annals of El-Islam : in
treating of the Mogul dynasty , he makes not a single allusion ( except an evasion in the preface ) to Erskine ' s groat work , a study of which is absolutely essential to a comprehension of the characters both of Timour and his successor ; but with these , and with other obvious shortcomings , the work is nevertheless a sound one , and , though small , deserving of a place in historical collections . The distribution of the narrative into sections , though arbitrary , has been carried out upon an intelligible plan . To comprehend the chronicles of the Mohammedan empire and conquest , it is essential to take a survey of the condition of the known world at the date of the prophet's birth . The first period naturally includes the story of his personal career , and the analysis of the religion he established . The second , less necessarily , though appropr iately enough , is confined to the romantic
history of his earlier successors , the subjugation of Persia , Syria , and Egypt , the origin of the great schism between the adherents and the foes of Ali , the Caliphates of Damascus , and the erection of the dynasty of Abbas . In the third period the Abbassides decline ; the Saracen power is weakened and divided ; rival Caliphates spring up in Egypt and Spain ; various Turkish families rise to sovereignty in the East ; the crusades are commenced ; the vast Saracenic Empire crumbles away . A separate , though partly parallel nJ * rr £ tion . takes iyi tne P rogres 3 of the Mohammedans in Western Europethe Spanish Caliphate and its offspring of minor states , with the Saracenic settlements of France , Italy , Sicily , and Crete . Finally , in the remoter ii-ast , lslamism assumes several distinct and curious shapes—in the Persian lino of the Sophis , the Tartar lino of the Moguls , the wars of Ishmael and
Atlantic to the Euphrates , almost round the Mediterranean Sea , far through Europe , through Asia Minor , Syria , and part of Armenia . His rival , a prince of the Sassanidae , was perhaps * powerful , and far more illustrious . Thus , the sovereign governments of the epoch were not idolatrous , for the Persians were not idolators . Mr . Freeman does , well in insisting upon this point . He is perhaps wrong in calling them heathens , unless the Mohammedans themselves are heathenish ; for surely the faith of the Prophet is far less spiritual , far less exalted than that of the supremely pure and subtle creed of the Magi . We think Mr . Freeman is not altogether right in describing the Persian deity as scarcely a personal being , but a dim and shadowy abstraction . The Oracles call him Father ; to his Mind is attributed the creation of all things ; he is the Unbegotten Dispenser of all Good , Self-taught , Wise , and the Only Inventor of the Sacred Philosophy . However , it is true that popular superstition had corrupted the doctrines of
Zoroaster by introducing visible , though at the same time natural , types and objects of adoration ; it is true , also , that mysticism had worked its way deeply among the M agian priesthood . But the precepts of their faith were sublime ; they stood at an immeasurable elevation above the pagan races of the more distant East , and it will ever remain doubtful whether Mohammedanism did not disseminate coarser and less ennobling principles , at least in the Persian Empire . But in Arabia , in the deserts in the midst of which it sprang , the patriarchal monotheism had been to a great extent supplanted by the adoration of subordinate powers ; national , local , and family idols were worshipped ; first-fruits and oblations were offered idolatrously ; the antique Kaaba of Mecca was crowded with graven and molten images : hither Mohammed came as a real reformer . To the Sabseans his teaching
was purification ; by the Magi it was scarcely needed . But beyond the Sabeean and Magian boundaries stood the gloomy state edifices of India , far away in Central Asia mouldered tile relics of the Bactriaii rule , the Gothic monarchy flourished in Spain , the Merovingian dynasty survived in Gaul . In Northern Europe pagan doctrine still possessed the minds of the uncultured nations , though the mission of Augustine to England had taken place . From Northern Asia the Turkish and Mongolian hordes were pouring still further northwards beyond the Caspian and Euxine seas ; the Itonian frontier on the Danube was menaced by Huns , Avars , and Chazars , who had traversed regions , now known as Russian and Turkish , but then unsettled and unsubdued . Everywhere beyond the limits of the empires of Justin and Khosru nations were migrating , barbarians were ruling , and
uninteilectual tyrannies were preparing the way for war and revolution . At t his period , the career of Mohammed was an apparition , surprising and troublingthe world . With reference to its effects , Mr . Freeman ' s views are sufficiently liberal ; but . he does riot adopt the extravagant idea that a Mohammedan state upon the borders of Christian Europe is a political necessity . Mohammed himself he respects as a civil and religious reformer in Arabia , as a man who could gather the scattered tribes of his people into one united nation , and sweep away the idolatry of the Kaaba . But , in his own day , he has an antipathy to the Turk , and a sympathy withi the Arab , illustrating his opinions on this point by a reference to those of Sir Arthur Elton , who admitted some of Mr . . Freeman ' s contributions among his well-known Tracts for the Times .
Persia , Syria , Africa , Spain , the countries beyond the Oxiis , saw the lurid light of the Crescent flash across and far beyond their borders . But the early Saracens were not the cruel conquerors that their successors in power , the Ottomans , proved themselves to be . In the record of their Government , we find no parallel to the massacres of Chios or the devastation of Crete ; even the bloody Abbassides were less ferocious than the successors of Othrnan . Among these Abbassides it is remarkable that Haroun-alliashid , the contemporary and correspondent of Charlemagne , the most celebrated of his lineage , was by no means the most estimable . He has been made an Alfred , an Arthur , a Solomon ; yet even the mythical history of his reign depicts him as a capricious despot , who could be as merciless as any Suleiman , and who never acted with a magnanimity analagous to that
of ivhosru . Upon this topic Mr . freeman has some very apt remarks . Haroun threatens the grand vizier of the Caliphate and all his relations with death because a corpse is found in the Tigris ; he then forgives them because they tell him an extraordinary story . He assassinates his minister Jaffier , and slaughters the Barmecides , without the least justification ; he drinks wine in defiance of his vows , and of the national religion ; he is a slave-hunter and an adorer of vanities . The reason of his historical elevation , however , is to be found in the circumstance that , like another Louis XIV ., he gave his reign a meretricious aspect of glory . Under his successor was witnessed the contrast of a declining empire . . Mr . Freeman assigns no sufficient reason for refusing to Timour the glory
of founding in India the great dynasty of the Moguls . He overthrew the existing dynasty , broke up the old empire , assumed the dominion of the vast peninsula , and left it to his successors . Baber was his descendant , and Baber established the Turki line at Delhi , by virtue of the triumphs of arms and polity accomplished by Timour . Humayun , Akbar , Jehanghir , Shnh Jehan , Aurungzebe , close this magnificent succession of princes , who created in Hindostan an empire of fitful glory , which passed away , leaving little more than a multitude of vain monuments to commemorate its existence . The reader interested in these fascinating episodes of history will find them treated concisely , with refinement yet with vigour , by Mr . Freeman .
3 r 2 > , tro P tuefJ of Abbas , the virtues of Akbar , the disasters that befel the Moliammedan dynasty in Hindostan after the death of Aurungzebe . A wo conspicuous empires divided the rule of the civilized world , when Mohammed appeared . On the Western throne sat Justin II ., on the Eastern , Khosru , Burnamod Nurshivan . The edicts of Justin wore still obeyed from
The Eighteenth Century. The Eighteenth C...
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY . The Eighteenth Century , or , Illustrations of the Manners and Custoyns of our Grandfathers . By Alexander Andrews . Chapman and HalL According to the expectations formed by the reader , and his knowledge of the subject , this book will receive two very different verdicts . Those who want a philosophical or well-informed guide through the winding ways o £ the eighteenth century , had better not open Mr . Andrewa ' s volume ; they will find in it neither literature nor learning above the standard of a secondrate magazine . But to a large class of readers—persons ) who like light gossipy books , and are altogether uncritical—Mr . Andrews offers a succes-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 25, 1856, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25101856/page/17/
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